Sunday, April 12, 2009

It is April 12 of 2009. In a month, it will be a year from our glorious graduation from the M-I-C of A, and I still don't have a puppy. Ok, let me explain. It's April 200 and fucking 9 and I don't have a puppy running in my yard. I don't, because I don't have a yard. I don't have a yard, because I live in a very limited, very carpeted apartment complex that makes it virtually impossible to have dogs. I would live in a place with a yard, or a balcony, or some kind of space where to put my plants...if I could afford it. I could afford it if I had a real job. A real art job. See where I'm going with this? It's amazing how everything that's wrong with my life right now can be traced to that lingering fact. I know most of you can painfully relate, and I'm sure that many of you have more urgent things to worry about than puppies. Things like rent and utilities and groceries.

In a month, it will be the fateful anniversary of our birth into the "real" world, and many of us still don't have art jobs, or freelance assignments, or puppies. 2008 was a shitty year. 2009 promises to be equally shitty. Some of us are starting to feel desperately frustrated because we are still not where we thought we would/should be at this point.

THIS IS THE HARD PART ABOUT BEING AN ARTIST.

Deciding to study art is not hard. Becoming an artist, going to school... that is not (too) hard.Continuing to be an artist. That is the hard part. Not giving up on your career. That is the hard part. Continuing to apply for job after job after job regardless of the assholes that never even have the common courtesy of letting you know they got your email/portfolio/resume. That is the hard part. Creating things even when nobody hires you to. That is the hard part. Keeping on, that's the hardest part. This is what separates artists from people that went to art school.

So lets not give our shitty economy the last laugh. Continue to be an artist. Keep making things. Keep applying to jobs. Yes this sucks. And yes, as a class we got a really bad year. But this is still our life. We will still be artists nonetheless.

Let's support each other through this. Let's not hate when one of us is doing well. As tempting as that may be, that's what Shepard Fairey is for...

5 comments:

I'm sharing your frustrations. I want a doggie too, so bad! And recently I've been freaking out because I can't even get a shitty cafe job out here. My internship, with any luck, will take me places eventually, but I have no steady income. Even if I did snag a job in retail, between that and my internship I would have little to no time for art.

With my interning ALONE I was stressing out because it was demanding so much of my energy. I realized that I hadn't sketched in months and I started to get depressed. Right now I'm working my way back up to being productive, and trying harder to stay positive.

I think the trick is to remind yourself that you can only do so much, and don't get discouraged if you have switch your focus. Do a little bit here and there. I really want to be one of those people that makes a piece of art every day, and maybe someday I will be, but that's just not something I can do right now. Work up to it and the reward will be that much greater when you get there!

I know that sounds kind of corny, like a motivational poster, but seriously, it's gonna be ok.